Cydonia (Mars)

Small part of the Cydonia region, taken by the Viking 1 orbiter and released by NASA/JPL on July 25, 1976

Cydonia (/sɪˈdoʊniə/, /saɪˈdoʊniə/) is a region on the planet Mars that has attracted both scientific[1] and popular interest.[2][3] The name originally referred to the albedo feature (distinctively coloured area) that was visible from earthbound telescopes. The area borders the plains of Acidalia Planitia and the highlands of Arabia Terra.[4] The region includes the named features Cydonia Mensae, an area of flat-topped mesa-like features; Cydonia Colles, a region of small hills or knobs; and Cydonia Labyrinthus, a complex of intersecting valleys.[5][6] As with other albedo features on Mars, the name Cydonia was drawn from classical antiquity, in this case from Kydonia (Ancient Greek: Κυδωνία; Latin: Cydonia), a historic polis (city state) on the island of Crete.[7] Cydonia contains the "Face on Mars", located about halfway between the craters Arandas and Bamberg.[4]

  1. ^ Carlotto, Mark J. (May 15, 1988). "Digital Imagery Analysis of Unusual Martian Surface Features" (PDF). Applied Optics. 27 (10): 1926–1933. Bibcode:1988ApOpt..27.1926C. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.331.2704. doi:10.1364/AO.27.001926. ISSN 0003-6935. PMID 20531684. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 16, 2013. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  2. ^ Whitehouse, David (May 25, 2001). "Nasa: No face – honest". BBC News. London. Retrieved November 9, 2007.
  3. ^ Britt, Robert Roy (September 22, 2006). "Face on Mars gets makeover". CNN.com. SPACE.com. Retrieved November 9, 2007.
  4. ^ a b "Cydonia – the face on Mars". ESA. September 21, 2006. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  5. ^ "Planetary Names: Mars". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  6. ^ "Planetary Names: Feature Types". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  7. ^ MacDonald, T. L. (October 1971). "The origins of Martian nomenclature". Icarus. 15 (2): 233–240. Bibcode:1971Icar...15..233M. doi:10.1016/0019-1035(71)90077-7.